Anomaly Research Centre:Exclusives/Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan Interview
Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan contacted ZEM for an interview. Gareth wrote the rulebook for the Primeval Roleplaying Game. Thank you very much Gareth for your patience and answers to my questions! ---- 1. How did the idea for a Primeval role-playing game come about? It came up in one of those 'what TV/movie-based game would you like to see' conversations, and the elements of the show, including dinosaurs and time travel, clicked for me, so we went after it. One of the guys at Impossible Pictures was in our extended network, so we made contact and pitched it to him and his team. He's a gamer too, so we were off to a good start. 2. Were you familiar with Primeval prior to writing the game's rulebook? I'd seen one or two episodes, and then when it looked like I might be the one writing the rulebook, I went off and gave myself a crash course (three series and four novels in a week!), along with lots of books on dinosaurs and ecology. 3. How was Impossible Pictures involved in the creation of the game? They gave us a ton of information early on - copies of the scripts, images from the series, background information on the characters and so on - and we had a few chats about the future of the series, what we could and couldn't do with the game and so on. Then, when we had a draft we were happy with, they went through it and checked everything. They couldn't find anything at all to nitpick, which I'm rather happy about. 4. How long did it take to write and test the game? Writing the first draft took about three months. Testing was due to take another month or so - the game uses the same rules as the Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space rpg, so we felt it didn't need extensive testing. As it turned out, though, laying out the book took an awful lot longer than planned, so a lot more testing got done. 5. Are the Primeval quotes in the rulebook from scripts for the show? (Not all the lines quoted in the rulebook were spoken in the show.) Oh, well spotted! Yes, we used the scripts for reference. 6. What can you tell us about your plans for the Series 4 & 5-based supplement? It's in development right now. It'll have background details and more information on Matt and the other new characters and the new set-up for the Anomaly Research Centre. We'll have Emily's Time Tribe as a Campaign Framework, more details on other time periods like the Victorian era, New Dawn as a conspiracy, and lots of detail on Matt's dark future. We're also working on an adventure book of all-new material. 7. Is it possible that once the Canadian spin-off, (Primeval: New World), is broadcast that it will receive a supplement as well? It's possible, but we've got a lot of material from the UK series to work through first! 8. What else can you tell us about the Primeval role-playing game, that we've not already covered? If you've never tried tabletop roleplaying before, Primeval is a great way to start. The rules are simple, and all you need are a few friends and some dice. There's even a sample adventure in the book to get you started. ---- :Note: All opinions expressed in interviews belong solely to the crew or cast member interviewed, and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of ZEM, Primeval Wiki or Impossible Pictures. Category:Primeval Wiki Exclusives